Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Confident Hope

Our 6th day in Rwanda, before we traveled from Kigali to Gisenyi, we spent the day with the Best Family in the Gasharu community. BFR is a ministry for orphans and vulnerable children in difficult situations. The focus of BFR is to provide a Christ-centered family structure with an emphasis on education, healthcare & social welfare. One of the coolest things about this ministry is the story of how it started. BFR was founded and started by three former Rwandan orphans. All three became orphans as children when their families were killed in the genocide. Growing up together in the orphanage, they learned to rely on God and each other to survive whether it was sharing food, school supplies and basic daily needs or praying together. Now all grown up, these 3 men have poured their hearts and lives and all the money they have into building the Best Family and implementing family structure, medical provisions, education, and basic needs. Visiting Orphans found out about the Best Family and came along side them this past December and started the Kunda sponsorship program with the goal being to connect every child in the Best Family with a sponsor who is active in their life and financially helps provide education, health care and basic needs.

Journal Entry day 6:

We visited the best family today and I loved every second of it. Such an amazing organization lead by 3 selfless Rwandans. It was so cool to meet them and see the results of the love, time and energy that they have poured into those precious children. It was so adorable, they all, in unison, punched the air with seriousness and pride and shouted at the top of their lungs in English "Best Family!" "We are here!" "Confident Hope!" The leaders went on to point to individual kids and shout "what is your purpose?!" And the child would stand up really straight & tall and shout at the top of his lungs what he wanted to be when he grows up. Agghh it was so inspiring, beautiful and heart touching. They sang and danced for us, we sang and danced for them. We've learned a few songs in Kinyarwanda and they loved it. We played hard all day and and it was sad to say goodbye.

On another note, I'm excited because Jane and I worked it out to enroll a new little boy in the Best Family sponsorship program. This little boy's father, Alphonse, has been the bus driver for the Visiting Orphans teams in Rwanda for several years until this year. He became very sick with Aids and even almost died recently. He had dinner with us last night and I learned you can can get free Aids medication from the government now which is what he's doing but anyways, when he got sick, he lost his bus and his job & he and his little boy are in a very difficult situation. It's totally from the Lord how it all came about for me to be able to sponsor his little boy, who I now consider my "Rwandan son." I haven't even met him yet and Jane couldn't remember his name so I don't know that yet either! I got like 60 seconds of wifi at dinner tonight and in a text, got to tell Andrew about "our new son" briefly and he was really excited and wanted to know his name which I didn't know. But I'm so happy this little boy gets to be apart of the Best Family and I will actually get the chance to meet him in Kigali on Monday! I can't wait to meet him and be a part of his life.